Currently, emergency agencies and personnel are called upon to extricate persons from vehicles due to accidents, persons becoming incapacitated from medical reasons, obesity, physical disabilities, etc. To date, this is a completely physical event on the part of the emergency personnel. Current training offers little to no safety during the extrication. It remains a hands on physical event which requires several emergency personnel to lift, pull and tug on the injured patient. This also potentially causes more injuries and increases the risk of neck and spinal injuries to the patient. Consequently, injury rates to emergency personnel and patients continue to be high. There are no current offerings that allow the emergency personnel to safely extract a person from a vehicle without physically jeopardizing the patient or the personnel.
The present system/apparatus and method are designed to assist in vehicle extrication and lifting of a patient without the emergency personnel having to physical lift or pull the patient. By using two lift hoists in conjunction with a removable lifting pad, emergency personnel are able to remove a patient up and out of a vehicle while safely securing the patient in the removable lifting pad. The two points of movement allow the emergency personnel to move the lower body or upper body independent of each other, thus enabling a more precise movement as needed. Even if unconscious, the patient will be removed safely while secured in the removable lifting pad. Because this is a manual extraction and lifting system, weather is not an issue. The lack of electrical or battery power is no detriment.
While the system/apparatus and method are particularly useful in extricating a patient from a vehicle, it should be appreciated that they are just as useful in extricating a patient from other positions or situations from which extrication is needed. These include, but are no way limited to extrication from a confined space of any type, a bath tub or even building rubble following an earthquake, hurricane, tornado or other disaster.